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The fight over how to report loss contingencies on the financial statement has dragged on for years. Now, the winter of accounting executives' discontent may be upon us. Compliance Week editor Matt Kelly explains why contingency reporting is at a crossroads, and how legal, accounting and compliance functions may all feel the pressure to come.

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board says it will hire more inspectors to keep a closer eye on auditing firms in 2011. The board also signaled that public companies can expect a 5.4 percent increase in the support fee they pay to fund the endeavor.

As the overseer of the Financial Accounting Standards Board, the Financial Accounting Foundation plans to begin taking a closer look at the accounting standards issued by the board.FAF has developed a new process for performing post-implementation reviews of new accounting and reporting standards issued by the FASB as well as...

The Financial Accounting Foundation, an independent, private-sector organization responsible for the oversight of the Financial Accounting Standards Board and the Governmental Accounting Standards Board, has elected four new members to its board of trustees. Each of the appointments is for a five-year term that begins in January 2011. Among the...

The Financial Accounting Standards Board is starting to soften its stand on how companies should account for expected credit losses as it pick through a long list of objections to its proposed accounting standards update for financial instruments.FASB met with the International Accounting Standards Board to work through various questions...

Aflac Incorporated has appointed June Howard as chief accounting officer, assuming the role from senior vice president, Ralph Rogers, who is retiring. Howard also will continue to serve in her current position as senior vice president of Financial Services and International Financial Reporting Standards at Aflac.Howard joined Aflac in 2009...

The Institute of Internal Auditors is giving internal auditors some fresh tools to work with in the coming year, with new professional standards that take effect in 2011 and a new Web portal designed specifically with chief audit executives in mind.The IIA finalized 26 revisions to its International Standards for...

Yet another controversial accounting proposal is moving off the charts for the 2010 reporting year after the Financial Accounting Standards Board determined it needs more time to work on new rules around multiemployer pension plans. On a related note, the board also determined it will hold off on any further...

The Financial Accounting Standards Board has pushed back the targeted release date of another proposed accounting standards update, this time delaying by one quarter a final standard on whether companies should be allowed or required to measure investment properties at fair value.FASB originally planned to finalize a new standard by...

To short-circuit any further Lehman-like treatment of repurchase agreements, the Financial Accounting Standards Board has published a proposed accounting standards update that would more explicitly explain how to account for transactions with an obligation to repurchase an asset.In Proposed ASU: Transfers and Servicing (Topic 860) – Reconsideration of Effective Control...

With international rules now modified around how a company accounts for its own debt, analysts are calling on the Financial Accounting Standards Board to follow suit.The International Accounting Standards Board recently finalized a change in International Financial Reporting Standards that tells companies to measure most liabilities at amortized cost, or...

Rayonier, an international forest products company, has elected Mark Gaumond to its board of directors, effective immediately.Gaumond retired earlier this year as senior vice chair of markets for Ernst & Young, where he oversaw the assurance, tax, transaction and advisory service lines in the Americas region. Previously, he was the...

Standards of risk governance have improved at Europe’s 25 biggest banks, but many boards are still failing to send management a clear message on the level of risk they can take, according to a new report.Boards are more involved in approving risk appetite than they were before the financial crisis,...

With an admission that maybe they’ve bitten off more than they can chew, accounting rulemakers have decided to take a break from two separate projects that once appeared prominently on their priority list for converging U.S. and international accounting rules.The Financial Accounting Standards Board and the International Accounting Standards Board...

If you’re getting nervous about how your corporate finance staff can implement reams of new accounting rules that are on the horizon, here’s your chance to sounds off to the rule makers and tell them how it ought to be done.The Financial Accounting Standards Board has published a discussion paper...

International audit experts are proposing some new guidance that should be added to the required reading list for U.S. companies and auditors involved with complex financial instruments.The International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board is looking for comments on some draft guidance titled International Auditing Practice Statement 1000, Special Considerations in...

Companies may soon have some new rules to follow to determine when a loan modification or an adjustment in credit terms constitutes a “troubled debt restructuring” for accounting purposes.The Financial Accounting Standards Board has published a proposed update to accounting standards that is intended to make it clearer to any...

Deloitte Financial Advisory Services has announced the appointment of two new partners to its corporate investigations team, as well as the appointment of a new director to its analytic and forensic technology practice.Larry Kivett, who has been with the firm his entire career, has been promoted to partner in the...

The Financial Accounting Standards Board is proposing new updates to the Accounting Standards Codification around goodwill write-downs, business combinations, and revenue recognition for healthcare entities based on recommendations from its Emerging Issues Task Force.In the proposal titled Intangibles – Goodwill and Other (Topic 350): How the Carrying Amount of a Reporting Unit...

The key to deterring would-be corporate fraudsters is a strong tone at the top, a skeptical approach to financial reporting, and strong communication among those in the reporting supply chain, according to a recent report from the Center for Audit Quality.The CAQ conducted five roundtables and 20 in-depth interviews to...

The Financial Accounting Standards Board may be sending up a smoke signal with an unusual missive describing how investors aren’t entirely in love with the board’s proposed new rules on financial instruments.The board published a nine-page description of its interaction with investors regarding FASB’s controversial proposal to call for more...

Well of course I went to see “Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps” this weekend. I’m the editor of a magazine that writes about securities regulation and ethical business conduct. How could I not go see it?Unfortunately, watching the film was a hardship assignment. It’s awful. The plot is a dull...

Russ Golden, current technical director at the Financial Accounting Standards Board, will assume the board seat created by the surprise early retirement of Chairman Robert Herz effective Oct. 1.Golden was appointed by FASB’s overseer, the Financial Accounting Foundation, to fulfill Herz’s unexpired term through June 2012. Herz’s chairman duties will...

The auditing profession is watching closely a hearing in New York Court of Appeals this week, expecting significant implications for auditor malpractice claims.A group of investors in the reinsurance firm American International Group are suing the company’s audit firm, PricewaterhouseCoopers, for failing to detect a long-running bid-rigging and accounting fraud...

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board has decided to reopen the comment process and gather more feedback on its proposed standard, Communications With Audit Committees, governing how auditors must communicate with audit committees.The PCAOB scheduled a roundtable session for Sept. 21 and reopened the comment process on its proposed standard...